The invention relates to a zoom stereomicroscope with taking lens barrel, and more particularly, to such a microscope comprising a binocular observation zoom stereomicroscope combined with a photographing or auxiliary observation optical system in which each optical subsystem has a variable magnification for zoom use.
A variety of zoom stereomicroscopes are available which are provided with a photographing or auxiliary observation optical subsystem. However, conventional arrangements suffer from certain drawbacks. Specifically, if it is desired to change the magnification when taking a picture, it is necessary to change the objective lens in a microscope of the type employing objective lenses of different magnifications, resulting in inconvenience in operation. This also results in the inability to provide a continuously changing magnification. With a microscope including a half mirror which diverts part of the light from an observation optical subsystem into a branch path for photographing or auxiliary observation purpose, there results a loss of the amount of light available and also difficulty in operating because of an increased length of the lens barrel. A continuous variation of the magnification is also impossible in a microscope comprising a binocular observation optical subsystem and a separate photographing optical subsystem each including an auxiliary lens which may be simultaneously inserted, removed or replaced by other auxiliary lenses to enable a variable magnification of the both optical subsystems in one operation.